Growing through chaotic intervals

We consider a growth model proposed by Matsuyama [K. Matsuyama, Growing through cycles, Econometrica 67 (2) (1999) 335-347] in which two sources of economic growth are present: the mechanism of capital accumulation (Solow regime) and the process of technical change and innovations (Romer regime). We will shown that no stable cycle can exist, except for a fixed point and a cycle of period two. The Necessary and Sufficient conditions for regular or chaotic regimes are formulated. The bifurcation structure of the two-dimensional parameter plane is completely explained. It is shown how the border-collision bifurcation leads from the stable fixed point to pure chaotic regime (which consists either in 4-cyclical chaotic intervals, 2-cyclical chaotic intervals or in one chaotic interval).     

Family satisfaction and social networking leisure

The purpose of this study was to explore the bidirectional relationship between the use of social networking sites (SNS) for leisure, and family and leisure satisfaction. The sociotechnological model served as a sensitising theoretical framework for this study. Seven families (22 individuals) took part in group and individual interviews. The data obtained from interviews were analysed using constant comparative method. The results showed that influences of SNS on satisfaction with family leisure and family satisfaction varied: the use of SNS helped families to build enjoyable family leisure, stay connected with family members and increase a sense of belonging. In some cases, however, it also decreased the amount of time spent with family, lowered attention during face-to-face interactions, provided opportunity for negative comparisons and caused concerns about the development of social skills among youth. In turn, family relationships and satisfaction with family life influenced the way family members used SNS for leisure. Some participants increased the use of SNS during times of family conflict in order to seek support and as a way to distract themselves from unpleasant thoughts. Others limited their use of SNS due to lack of interest in social pursuits and to avoid sharing information about family conflicts.     

Modelling the Distributional Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis*

The COVID-19 emergency has had a dramatic impact on market incomes and income-support policies. The lack of timely available data constrains the estimation of the scale and direction of recent changes in the income distribution, which in turn constrains policymakers seeking to monitor such developments. We overcome the lack of data by proposing a dynamic calibrated microsimulation approach to generate counterfactual income distributions as a function of more timely external data than are available in dated income surveys. We combine nowcasting methods using publicly available data and a household income generation model to perform the first calibrated simulation based upon actual data, aiming to assess the distributional implications of the COVID-19 crisis in Ireland. Overall, we find that the crisis had an equalizing real-time effect for both gross and disposable incomes, notwithstanding the significant hardship experienced by many households.     

Private-information group contests with complementarities

We model competing groups when players' values for winning are private information, the effort complementarity is uncertain at the time efforts are exerted, and the group with the best performance wins the contest. We analyze the effects of increasing the number of team members and the anticipated complementarity of efforts. We find that the effort underprovision brought about by a larger group membership is especially severe if the complementarity is high. More generally, higher complementarity may exacerbate rather than alleviate the underprovision of effort. Members of groups that are otherwise symmetric—and only differ with respect to the anticipated complementarity of efforts—use the same equilibrium strategy. And, when groups differ only in size, members of the smaller group act more aggressively, but the smaller or larger group may be more likely to win.     

Evolution of markets: a simulation with centralized,decentralized and posted offer formats

We apply standard evolutionary dynamics to study trader participation in three competing market formats —call market (CM), posted offer (PO) and decentralized market (DM). In our framework, heterogeneous buyers and sellers seek to transact a homogeneous good, which can be done by allocating their time among three different market formats. Our results show that (i) the final participation of traders in the CM is much higher, (ii) the PO can coexist with the CM, (iii) the DM unravels when competing against CM and (iv) the DM can coexist with the PO, depending on the initial participation conditions. Thus, we demonstrate that agent-based micro-simulations coupled with replication dynamics can reproduce most of the previously known theoretical results and have the potential to investigate other commonly used hybrid auction protocols.     

Differential effects of mother’s and child’s postnatal WIC participation on breastfeeding

We evaluate the effect of postnatal participation in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programme on breastfeeding decisions using the data from the IFPS II. We find that the infant’s WIC participation positively affects the hazard of discontinuing breastfeeding, both partial and exclusive (and is thus associated with abbreviated breastfeeding duration). No significant association is found between the mother’s participation and the hazards of stopping exclusive or partial breastfeeding. Such differential effects might be a result of the programme’s policy, according to which the infant, but not the mother needs to be enrolled to receive free formula.     

Exploring factors influencing US millennial consumers’ use of tap-and-go payment technology

ABSTRACT

Although mobile payment (MP) represents a possibility for traditional brick-and-mortar US retailers to enhance the quality of customer service, mobile payment adoption in the US has lagged, with research regarding this phenomenon in the US seemingly in its embryonic stage. The current study contributes to the literature on mobile payment adoption in the US by investigating the factors on US millennial consumers’ use of mobile payment technology, operationalized in the study as tap-and-go payment systems. The study mirrors a study of the acceptance of mobile shopping technology among German consumers, with some extension. The study incorporated mobile payment risk perception, system trust, and socio-cultural influence into an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) to explore this issue. Results from a survey conducted among 357 US Millennials indicate that perceived ease of use of MP (PEOUMP); perceived usefulness (PUMP); and risk perception all influence attitude toward mobile payment (AttMP). System trust, socio-cultural influence, and AttMP all influence MP use intention. The paper discussed the limitations of the study and future research directions.     

Who gains and who loses on stock markets? Risk preferences and timing matter

This paper uses an agent-based multi-asset model to examine the effect of risk preferences and optimal rebalancing frequency on performance measures while tracking profit and risk-adjusted return. We focus on the evolution of portfolios managed by heterogeneous mean-variance optimizers with a quadratic utility function under different market conditions. We show that patient and risk-averse agents are able to outperform aggressive risk-takers in the long-run. Our findings also suggest that the trading frequency determined by the optimal tolerance for the deviation from portfolio targets should be derived from a tradeoff between rebalancing benefits and rebalancing costs. In a relatively calm market, the absolute range of 6% to 8% and the complete-way back rebalancing technique outperforms others. During particular turbulent periods, however, none of the existing rebalancing techniques improves tax-adjusted profits and risk-adjusted returns simultaneously.     

Existence of perfect equilibria: a direct proof

We provide a direct proof of the existence of perfect equilibria in finite normal form games and extensive games with perfect recall. It is done by constructing a correspondence whose fixed points are precisely the perfect equilibria of a given finite game. Existence of a fixed point is secured by a generalization of Kakutani theorem, which is proved in this paper. This work offers a new approach to perfect equilibria, which would hopefully facilitate further study on this topic. We also hope our direct proof would be the first step toward building an algorithm to find the set of all perfect equilibria of a strategic game.     

Ownership structure,corporate governance,and enterprise performance: Empirical results for ukraine

This paper examines the effect of ownership structure on corporate governance and performance of privatized enterprises in transition. The data are taken from a survey conducted in 2001 on 202 medium and large firms in Ukraine for the period 1998–2000. The ownership structure is measured by the percentage of shares held by each type of owner (state, managers, workers, Ukrainian concentrated outsiders, foreign concentrated owners, and stake-holding shareholders). Performance is measured by sales per employee. Regression analysis is used to test the hypothesis that concentrated outside ownership influences performance positively and to detect non-linear effects of ownership variables on performance. In contrast, with important previous studies on enterprise restructuring in Ukraine [Estrin and Rosevear, 1999], significant ownership effects on performance are found. Insider ownership (being a special case of stakeholding ownership) is found to have a significant non-linear effect on performance—positive within a lower range but negative from a threshold close to majority ownership onwards. In general, Ukrainian outside owners do not have a significant effect on performance. However, stakeholding ownership by customers affect sale prices and performance negatively. The most robust results are obtained for the effects of concentrated foreign ownership, both for levels of the respective variables in each year and for changes from one year to the other. The impact of foreign ownership on performance is significantly non-linear: its effect is positive only up to a level that falls short of majority ownership. It is concluded that this non-linearity is due to an institutional environment still adverse to foreign direct investment.Support from Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.